Border Officials Are Said To Have Caused El Paso Closure by Firing Anti-Drone Laser

Source: Slashdot

Incident Overview

An anonymous reader shares a report: The abrupt closure of El Paso’s airspace late Tuesday was precipitated when Customs and Border Protection officials deployed an anti‑drone laser on loan from the Department of Defense without giving aviation officials enough time to assess the risks to commercial aircraft, according to multiple people briefed on the situation.

The episode led the Federal Aviation Administration to abruptly declare that the nearby airspace would be shut down for 10 days, an extraordinary pause that was quickly lifted Wednesday morning at the direction of the White House. Top administration officials quickly claimed that the closure was in response to a sudden incursion of drones from Mexican drug cartels that required a military response, with Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy declaring in a social‑media post that “the threat has been neutralized.”

That assertion was undercut by multiple people familiar with the situation, who said that the FAA’s extreme move came after immigration officials earlier this week used an anti‑drone laser shared by the Pentagon without coordination with the FAA. The people spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. CBP officials thought they were firing on a cartel drone, the people said, but it turned out to be a party balloon. Defense Department officials were present during the incident, one person said.